Button fastening device



Sept 8,193. F A HQLMGREN A I 2,053,559

BUTTON FASTENING DEVICE Filed NOV. 2l, 1934 Patented Sept. 8, 1936UNITED STATES! .tram orrlcl: f

BUTTON FASTENING DEVICE Frank A. Holmgren, Minneapolis, Minn.Application November 21, 1934, Serial No. 754,054

5'Claims. (Cl. 24-100.5) Y

thereof. Fortion Ib has its side edge portions I This invention relatesto a fastening or holding device and while` the inventionv may havevarious applications, it particularly was designed to hold buttons ongarments where the buttons must be frequently removed for the purpose oflaundering the garment.

One class of the garments above referred to comprises coats worn bynurses, waitresses, factoryy workers and other persons and many of thesepersons are girls. The fasteners as' now commonly used to hold on thebuttons have sharp edges and corners Vand these often catch in theclothing of the girls and in silk hose worn by them, causingconsiderable damage.

It is an object of this invention to provide a fastening device forholding the button, which has a flat substantially smooth bottom, whichis easily operated and which has no sharp points or vburrs adapted tocatch in the clothing.

It is a further object of the invention to prof vide a fastening deviceof simple, inexpensive and eicient construction, neat in appearance andwhich is very easily operated.

`It is still another object of the invention to provide a fasteningdevice having a base mem# ber having a smooth flat side, a second memberslidable in said base member, said base member having a portion upturned.on its upper side and having a slot therethrough and said second memberhaving a portion upt'urned projecting through said slot, said twoportions being adapted to engage to form a closed loop and beingnormally held in engagement by resilient means.

These and other objectsand advantages of the invention will be fully setforth in the following description made in connection with 'theaccompanying drawing, in which like reference characters refer tosimilar parts throughout the several views and in which:-

Fig. 1 is a view in side elevation showing the device as applied to abutton;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the device;

Fig. 3 is a top plan view;

Fig. 4 is a vertical section taken on line 4--4 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a vertical section taken on line 5--5 of Fig. 4; and

Fig. 6 is a vertical section taken on line 6-6 of Fig. 3, said sectionsbeing taken as indicated by the arrows.

Referring to the drawing, the device comprises a main or base memberdesignated generally as |0. Member I0 comprises a lower lplatelikeportion |0a and an vupper platelike portion |011. Portion lila has asubstantially flat bottom surface and is of general rectangular form,the same having its side portions bentupwardly substantially at a rightAangle and then bent inwardly substantially at a right angle so thatslotsor channels |00 are formed along the sides offset and in theassembly of member I0 said portions 10d are disposed in the slots |00and clamped therein. A channel or passage Ille is thus formed in memberI0, which passage is substantially rectangular in cross section. Theportion IDU has a slot |0f extending longitudinally therein adjacent itscentral portion and a `tongue or member lily upstands from memberlb atone end of said slot; said tonguepreferably being'formed of the metalremoved from said slot. The upper end of member |09 is slightly curvedtoward the rear end of member lb. Member |017 yin the rear .of slot |0fhas its central portion bent intosemi-cylindrical form as shown at Ich.Member Illa. has its rear portion also formed of slightlysemi-cylindrical form opposite portion lilh. as shown at |011 A member||of platelike form and substantially rectangular in shape slides in thepassageway ille and projects therefrom at the front end of member l0.vMember has a bill or portion lla upstan-ding therefrom, the sameprojecting through slot |0j 'and said portion or member Ha'has its upperportion bent into a substantially semi-cylindrical curve extendingforwardly, the forward end of' which normally contacts with the upperc'urved end of member my. Member lila, has its rear end bent upwardly toform a closure for channel lile and for the substantially cylindricalenlargement at the vrear end of said channel formed by the opposedsemi-oylindrical portions lElh-and mi. v-A coiled compression spring l2is disposed in said Substantially cylindrical passage formed by portionslz' and |071, one end of which bears against the end of saidpassage'andthe other end of which is engaged by the rear end of member l VWith thedescribed ystructurerthe device normally occupies the position shown inFig. 42. Spring l2 engaging the rear end of member moves the sameforwardly until the upper end of member ||a engages the upper end ofmember |0g. Members |09 and Ila thus coact to vber l0 engaged by thethumb or another finger.

Member is pushed into member l0 against lthe tension of spring I2 andmember lla is thusl moved away from member Illy forming an opening orpassage between said members as shown,

ber vlllgand theeye or loop BI is rmly vretained between members Illyand IIa. The eyelet BI is passed through a hole made for it in thegarmentv and when the member IIJ is attached to said eyelet the buttonis secured to the garment. It can be readily removed when the garment isto be laundered by detaching member I0 as above described. The bottom ofmember I0 it will be noted is fiat and substantially plain and both thismember and member I I are free from any sharp corners, edges or burrswhich tend to catch onthe clothing and particularly on silk hose.Y Atthe same time the device is very easily manipulated and can be quicklyremoved from the button and quickly engaged with the button.

From the above description it is seen that applicant has provided a verysimple and eicient fastening device for holding buttons and one whicheliminates serious objections to the devices previously used. Thepresent device is simple, easily made, very efficient and can be easilyand quickly operated. The device will, of course, be made of materialwhich will not easily corrode or it may be plated with non-corrosivematerial. The same has been amply demonstrated in actual practice andfound to be very successful and emcient.

It will, of course, be understood that various changes may be made inthe form, details, arrangement and proportions of the parts, withoutdeparting from the scope of applicants invention, which generallystated, consists in a device capable of carrying out the objects aboveset forth in the parts and combinations of parts disclosed and dened inthe appended claims.

What is claimed is:-

1. A device for fastening to a garment a button having an aperturedshank adapted to pass through an aperture in said garment having incombination, a member having a flat substantially plane and smoothbottom surface and being of small thickness relatively to the length ofsaid shank and having a passage extending longitudinally therethroughforming a guide channel, a second thin platelike member slidable in andguided in said passage, a member upstanding from said first mentionedmember, another member upstanding from said second mentioned member,said last two members being normally in engagement and forming a closedloop and resilient means disposed in said first mentioned member andengaging said second mentioned member to hold said last two mentionedmembers in engagement with said loop closed, said second mentionedmember projecting at one end of said first mentioned member and adaptedto be moved against the said resilient means for relatively moving saidlast two members to open said loop.

2. A device for fastening to a garment a button having an aperturedshank adapted to pass through an aperture in said garment having incombination, a member having a fiat substantially plane and smoothbottom portion and being of small thickness relatively to the length ofsaid .shank and having a passage therethrough forming a guide channel, asecond thin platelike member slidable in and guided in said passage, athird member upstanding from said first mentioned member, said firstmentioned member having a slot therein extending longitudinally thereoffrom said last mentioned member, a fourth member carried by said secondmentioned member and extending upwardly through said slot, said thirdand fourth members being normally in'engagement and one of them beingbent toward the other so that they form a closed loop and a springengaging said second mentioned member and adapted to hold said third andfourth members in engagement, said second member projecting from one endof said rst mentioned member and being movable against the tension ofsaid spring for relatively moving said third and fourth members to opensaid loop.

3. A fastening device having in combination, a comparatively thin memberhaving a fiat substantially smooth bottom portion, said member having alongitudinal passage therein, a second thin platelike member slidableand guided in said passage, said first mentioned member having a slotformed in its top portion, a tongue struck up from said member at oneend of said slot, said second member having a portion struck uptherefrom extending vertically through said slot, the same having itsterminal portion engaging said tongue, .a springdisposed in said firstmentioned member engaging one end thereof and engaging the end of saidsecond mentioned member so that said portion of said second mentionedmember is held in engagement with said tongue, said secondmentionedmember being movable against said spring to move said portion away fromsaid tongue. v

4. A fastening device comprising a platelike member of generalrectangular formV having a substantially smooth flat surface and havingits longitudinal edges reversely bent to form channels, a secondplatelike member of similar form having its longitudinal edge portionsoffset and received and held in said channels whereby a passage ofrectangular form in cross section is formed .between said members, saidsecond member having a slot formed in its upper side extendinglongitudinally thereof, a tongue struck up from said slot and upstandingfrom said second member at one end of said slot, a third platelikemember received Vin said passage and having a portion struck up andupstanding therefrom and extending through said slot, said portion andtongue being adapted to engage to form a closed loop and a springdisposed in one end of said passage engaging one end of said thirdmember to hold said portion and tongue in engagement, said third memberprojecting at one end of said passage so as to be pressed uponagainstthe tension of said spring to relatively move said tongue and portion toopen said loop.

5. A device for fastening to a garment a button having an aperturedshank adapted to pass through an aperture in said garment having incombination, a plate-like member having `a flat, plane and smoothbotto-m surface and being of small thickness relatively to the length ofsaid shank and having a passage extending longitudinally therethroughforming a guide channel, a second thin plate-like member slidable in andVguided in said passage, a member upstanding from the top of said firstmentioned member, another member upstanding from said second member,said last two members being normally in engagement and forming a closedloop and resilient means disposed in said first mentioned ymember andengaging said second mentioned member to hold said last two mentionedmembers in engagement with said loop closed, said second mentionedmember having a part projecting from said first mentioned member andadapted to be moved against said resilient means for relatively movingsaid last two mentioned members to open said loop.

FRANK A. HOLMGREN.

